How do the US dealers do it? Hello, I'm interested in how dealers in America get their inventory of bullion coins as they are released yearl from all over the world... I understand that the US Mint only sells bullion coins directly to its authorized distributors for a set rate over spot price that can be seen on the gov websites, and that to become an authorized distributor you have to buy minimum amounts of bullion per year etc... But what about for China-mint? Where do US dealers get their Silver Panda stocks from each year? Can they buy directly from the China Mint or do they buy from distributors... and if so which ones? its not like Modern coin mart buys all their pandas from provident or something like that now is it. So how does that work? I was just at the Whitman show in Baltimore and saw that 2012 Panda's are available right now from dealers... But None of the online websites have shipped that i know of... so where do they get their pandas? What about Australia's Perth Mint? Where do the dealers like the ones mentioned above get their Kookaburra's and Koala's and other bullion each year? And the limited release coins? how do they get those from the perth mint? they aren't ordering them directly on the perth website like any regular joe are they? Or maybe a distributor in Australia that works for the Perth Mint? or?... The list goes on... Where or how specifically do the bullion dealers get their newly released Canadian Maple Leafs/ Mexican Libertads/ Austrian Philharmonics/ GB Britannia's? I do assume there are minimum order requirements or sometimes similar situations to the United States... But i really want to know specifically how it all works.. Yes i am interested in possibly being a "bullion dealer" as a future profession and right now i'd just really like to know how the pro's get their coins. I couldn't find much on the internet and searching I found this thread but it doesn't focus on the Newly Released Bullion coins but is more of a numismatic discussion: Where do dealers get their coins?? I'm interested in the newly minted bullion coins being cranked out of the worlds mints. The curriosity has gotten to me and now i'm on a mission to learn how all this works. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say! Thanks!
I'm pretty sure this is a question you're not going to get answered here. For those who know ... don't want others to know
Call the mints directly and ask them. I'm pretty sure they aren't going to deny any answers to a potential future customer.
The big US bullion dealers are probably authorized to buy directly from the foreign mints. If you look at Apmex, Gainesville, etc. you even see some exclusive issues from foreign mints. The smaller US bullion dealers probably buy from the larger US bullion dealers. Another possibility is that US dealers may exchange US bullion (ASE, AGE) with foreign dealers. The big US dealers may also have offices in foreign countries as well. These are just guesses though. I have no insider knowledge. TC
The dealer here (in Canada) is one of the authorized distributors for mint products. They are one of the biggest dealers of mint products and move millions of dollars worth. During the rise in silver and gold prices a year or two ago, I know from someone on the inside that this company had one customer that purchased monster boxes of silver bullion to the tune of $250,000 a couple of times a week for about a month or so just to meet his customers' demand. Since they deal with a lot of shops world-wide, you can imagine just how much capital is required to service their orders. You can go directly to the mints, but to buy wholesale, you'll have to have very deep pockets. My personal dealer who sells a lot of mint items, does get a break but the percentage off is maybe 5% or less.
